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Luke 17:11-19;
Galatians 5:16-24; Proverbs 4:10-23
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The lepers stood at a distance, for that
is what the law required of them. Their disease caused them to be cut off from
their family, friends, and community, and from the temple and the synagogue as
well. However, when they cried out saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,”
they broke the law which also demanded that they cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!”
not for mercy. Nine of them were Jews, and one of them was a Samaritan. But, unlike
the Parable of the Good Samaritan, all ten lepers found themselves equally ostracized.
Being a child of Abraham counts for little when you are a leper. All ten were
looking for mercy from anyone who might show it to them, from Jesus, who could
identify with Jews, and with Samaritans, with the man left for dead in the
ditch, with lepers, and with you as well.
The lepers cried out for mercy, that is
all. They weren’t concerned about fairness and equality. They weren’t looking
for someone to justify and to accept their diseased state. They knew their
condition personally, intimately, physically, and spiritually. They offered
nothing to Jesus or to anyone. They didn’t make excuses or point to the
failings of others in order to justify themselves. They were fully accountable
lepers. Leprosy was their condition, their disease, and no one else’s. What
they desired, what they needed, was mercy, a kindness shown to them that they
did not merit or deserve, that they could not earn or buy, but that was freely shown
to them by grace alone, true love in action. And, that is what you and I need as
well, now, and always. You and I need, now and always, the grace, mercy, love,
compassion, and forgiveness of Jesus, for you and I are spiritual lepers, cut
off from our families, from our friends, and from our communities, and from the
holy presence of our Triune God, because of the leprous disease of our sin and
death.
Like the Good Samaritan, in that
parable, Jesus did not hesitate to respond in mercy. However, He didn’t heal
them on the spot exactly, at least not physically, but He commanded them, “Go
and show yourselves to the priests.” Their healing did not come
instantaneously, but it came through their faith and trust in His Word, and their
obedience, the fruit of their faith, that they did as Jesus commanded. All ten
lepers immediately set out for the temple to show themselves to the priests just
as Jesus had commanded them. And, as they went in faith and trust in Jesus,
doing what He commanded, each one of them was healed along the way. Once again,
there was no distinction made between Jew and Samaritan. All had the same
affliction in common. All pleaded for and received mercy and healing when they
trusted in and obeyed the Word of their Lord. However, their healing came
through faith and obedience, through fear, love, and trust in the Lord, and not
as an instantaneous, isolated event.
Jesus sent them to the temple and to the
priests, even as He sends you to the Church and to Her pastors, for their
healing, and your healing, is directly connected, effected, and sustained by
your fear, love, and trust in the Lord and His Will and His Word. Healing,
cleansing, and forgiveness are received by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Jesus Christ alone. And yet, these are never alone. One of the chief effects of
the lepers’ disease was that they were cut off from their families, friends,
and communities, and from the worship community and life of the temple and
synagogue. Part of their healing was restoration to these. So, also, your
healing, cleansing, and forgiveness is not an individual, isolated effect, but
it is a communal one shared with and in the presence of the community and the family
of the body of Christ, the Church. While you were absolved of all your sins in
Holy Baptism, Jesus commands you to “Go and show yourself to the priests,” to
go to Church in faith and trust in His Word and Sacraments that you may be
healed. Jesus’ Word is your spiritual bread that sustains and strengthens your
faith. Jesus’ body and blood is the medicine of immortality that forgives your
sins anew, that strengthens your faith, that saves you and protects you from
the devil until you are received to Jesus at the death of your natural body.
You see, Jesus didn’t just heal the
lepers, He restored them to their families, to their communities, to their
Church, and to His Father, Spirit, and Himself. Jesus changed them. No longer
were they isolated, cut off, and alone, but they were part of a family, a
community, the body of Christ. Christ’s body is absolved, nourished,
strengthened, and sustained, equipped, sent, and protected by lifelong, regular
reception of His Gifts. Jesus freed them from the bondage and slavery of sin
and death. Jesus freed them from the condemnation of the law which kept them
isolated and alone. And, Jesus has freed you from the same. Jesus has freed you
from the coercion and condemnation of the law so that you may live freely
without fear as part of a family, a community, His body the Church. Jesus has
freed you to live, not for yourselves alone, but for Him and for your neighbor,
with no sense of loss or inequity or unfairness. And, Jesus has freed you for
something else: Jesus has freed you that you may praise Him and glorify God
through Him, giving thanks to Him and confessing Him in word and deed.
Thus, there was one healed leper who
returned to Jesus after going to the temple, and he fell on his face at Jesus’
feet, giving Him thanks, and praising God with a loud voice. Only one out of
the ten healed lepers returned to give thanks and praise and worship to the
source of their healing. Only one of the ten healed lepers recognized and
confessed the source of their healing by bearing the fruit of a faithful
confession in word and deed – and that one was a foreigner, a Samaritan. Why
was it the Samaritan alone who returned to give thanks to Jesus and praise to
God? Perhaps that is because, unlike the other nine Jewish lepers, the
Samaritan leper was doubly unclean. Not only was he a leper, but, being a
Samaritan, even when he was cleansed from his disease, he would still be considered
ritually unclean, meaning he still could not worship at the temple or
synagogue. Perhaps here, once again, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan,
Jesus is pointing out the hypocrisy and legalism of the Pharisees who attempted
to justify themselves by observing the law while failing to fulfill the spirit
of the law in showing love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
“Rise and go your way; your faith has
made you well,” Jesus replied to the thankful Samaritan leper. Jesus’ words
literally mean, “Your faith has saved you.” Now, Christians often have a
fundamental misunderstanding of what faith is. They think that faith is a
choice or a decision that you make, or at least an assent or movement towards
God. However, nothing could be further from the truth. First and foremost,
faith is not something that you do, but faith is a gift from God by the Holy
Spirit through His Word. It is impossible for anyone to believe apart from the
faith-creating work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Therefore, if
you have faith, if you believe and trust in Jesus, then give thanks to God, for
this is His work, apart from which you would be as dead as Lazarus in his tomb
four days – he stinketh. Thus, Jesus can rightly say “your faith has saved you,”
because faith is the God-given, Spirit-created gift in you that clings to His
Word of promise, the Gospel truth that, in and through Jesus Christ, God has
forgiven you, cleansed you, restored you, and saved you out of death and has
raised you up to new and everlasting life in Him. The cleansed Samaritan leper
believed this. Thus he returned to Jesus to give Him thanks and praise and to
worship and glorify God in and through Him. His God-given, Spirit-created faith
in Jesus had truly made him well. To God alone be the glory in Jesus Christ.
While the cleansed Samaritan leper may
not have been restored to the community and to the worship life of the temple
and synagogue, that was because of man’s laws, not God’s. Nevertheless, he was
changed, and he walked a new path from that moment on. In our Epistle lesson
today, St. Paul contrasts the desires of the flesh, which we can think of as
leprosy, and the desires of the Spirit saying, “Walk by the Spirit, and you
will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are
against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for
these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to
do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
In holy baptism you were cleansed of
your spiritual leprosy. And, here in the Church your new life is cared for and
protected, sustained and equipped. However, it is your spirit that has been
cleansed and set free. Your flesh is still leprous and prone to pursuing a
different way than the way of the Lord. Thus, you must daily resist the desires
of your flesh and put the old man in you to death through repentance and
absolution. And, you can only do this when your new man is cared for by
receiving the gifts of your Lord in Word and Sacrament on a regular and steady
basis. Skipping church is like skipping a meal. Cutting yourself off from the
Lord’s gifts of Word and Sacrament will cause you to be weak and sick, and to
eventually die a spiritual death. “Now the works of the flesh are evident:
sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,
orgies, and things like these,” in other words, the things forbidden you in the
Ten Commandments. “Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God.” “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;” in other words, those things
exhorted you in the Ten Commandments. “Against such things there is no law. And
those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires.”
As we prayed today in the Collect: “O
Lord, keep Your Church with Your perpetual mercy; and because of our frailty we
cannot but fall, keep us ever by Your help from all things hurtful and lead us
to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our
Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
forever.” Your Great High Priest Christ Jesus is present here and now with His
Word and His Wounds to cleanse you anew and to nourish, strengthen, protect,
and keep you in faith that you may resist the temptations and desires of your
leprous flesh and continue to walk by the Spirit in faith. He has heard your
cry for mercy, and He mercifully forgives you and keeps you. “Rise and go your
way; your faith has made you well.”
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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